I saw the Hive learners weekly featured topic for the week, and I have to say, it’s a rather unusual one. I say unusual because instead of talking about developing a healthy sleeping habit, this week’s topic is focused on not sleeping. But the topic still is one that ultimately is aimed at helping people(students particularly in this case) to stay up longer to finish their school work on days they need to fight sleep.
People all over the world believe in the power of coffee in boosting productivity, and specifically for my part of the world, that energy drinks like Run or 5 Star energy drink performs magic when it comes to keeping them up and full of energy, because they pump you up with caffeine. From several tries, I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe coffee and the energy drinks just don’t work on me. I’ve tried so many, and still ended up wondering when I fell asleep last night the following day. People around here consider others like me, who don’t seem to be affected by what everyone else is as “people with hot blood”(from literal translation in my Ghanaian language).
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What works for me then?
Well like you would’ve guessed from the minute you read my title, I’ve kind of developed a superpower(or a curse based on your assessment) of not being able to sleep early thanks to a habit that I’ve developed over the years that basically leaves me with a sleep debt during the day, so I’m forced to nap. Once I take this day nap, I just can’t sleep at night no matter how much I want to, or how much I force it.
So after napping during the day and being unable to sleep at night, you end up feeling sleepy during the day the following day, and if you nap again, you sleep late at night that day and the cycle continues until you force yourself to correct it.
So one simple hack really is to just nap during the day and you definitely won’t be able to sleep early at night. Based on how long you long you napped, you might end up not being able to sleep the entire night though, so it’s best to moderate your nap to not be too long.
If you stay in this cycle too long and it becomes a habit, you could end up with insomnia though, so be careful with this.
I’ve observed that mostly, when I plan to stay awake an entire night a particular day, those are normally the days I end up sleeping earliest. That, I think is because of the fact that when I plan to stay awake, I just sit there doing nothing but keeping track of time, watching every minute that passes until it’s midnight, and that just makes me fall sleep faster for some reason. I’ve planned to stay up until 12am to do some downloads and slept around 11:50ish many times before, and it’s been because I’m literally just sitting there staring at the time until the remaining 10 minutes elapses, and by this time, I’m mostly already in dream land.
So yeah, simply keep yourself busy with some activity you enjoy doing(Don’t beat it though😂). If you’re a student, you could maybe do some fun math(if you love math) or work on that tough assignment, and that should more than enough to keep you up.
This one is not something I’d recommend, and it definitely isn’t something I do, but if you’re really determined to stay up and will try anything, maybe this is worth a mention.
You’re only conditioned to sleep well when you’re comfortable, so the best way to not sleep will be to make it uncomfortable to be able to sleep. Back in high school, I saw people dip their feet into cold water when they wanted to stay up and study. The rational behind this was that the cold water provided an uncomfortable environment, so you definitely don’t doze. There are a lot of things that could go wrong with this method though, so like I said, highly not recommended, but you make your own choices so.
Staying up late definitely shouldn’t become a habit, and I wish I took my own advice on this, but these are just tips on how to stay awake when you need to burn that midnight candle. Insomnia is serious and you don’t want to find your self struggling with sleep, the most basic way to reset your system and keep your operating at max capacity.
I am 
